Students and advocacy groups in Richmond are accusing school administrators of unfairly disciplining black students, and students with disabilities. Two students and a local chapter of the NAACP filed a federal discrimination complaint against Richmond Public Schools Wednesday.
JR is a rising 8th grader in Richmond Public Schools. He’s black and has emotional disabilities. Most of the time he’s in a special education class.
Last year, he left his classroom looking for a teacher. A security officer approached him.
“JR became agitated, and rather than de-escalating the situation, the school security officer restrained JR to the ground and he was taken to the office where he was restrained again,” said Rachael Deane, his lawyer.
JR was suspended for 2 weeks. His story is one element in a complaint filed to the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.
The complaint alleges that JR, and others like him, have been unfairly disciplined because of their race and disabilities.
Although the complaint is specific to Richmond, the Legal Aid Justice Center says the problem is state-wide. According to their analysis of state data, black students in Virginia are almost four times more likely to be suspended than their white peers.
Despite that, Deane says there’s no reason to believe black students are misbehaving more.
“We simply don’t have any evidence showing that there are actual disparities in student misconduct and in incidences of student misconduct," Deane said. "What we do have are data showing tremendous disparities based on race and disability with no explanation for it.”
In addition to Richmond, the report shows large racial disparities in Lynchburg and Danville, plus a significant difference between disabled students and non-disabled students in Charlottesville.
No one is seeking any monetary compensation from the complaint, but they are hoping an investigation by federal officials could lead to a change in disciplinary policies.
JR is a pseudonym used by the student's lawyers in the complaint.
